Comparing Performance of Copro-Diagnostics for Monitoring Intestinal Parasitic Infections in The Golden Jackal (Canis aureus)

The golden jackal Canis aureus is regarded as a potential bridge host for emerging parasites in Europe to domestic animals, owing to its adaptability to live in human-dominated landscapes. As the species continues to expand in Europe, copromicroscopy offers a non-invasive alternative to necropsy-based methods to obtain epidemiology data, but its performance in the species has never been assessed. We compared the performance of two copromicroscopic tests, flotation technique (FT) and Mini-FLOTAC (MF), to the Scraping, Filtration and Counting technique (SFCT), current standard for helminth detection, and assessed their agreement. The intestinal contents and corresponding fecal samples from 84 golden jackals were examined. Sensitivity and specificity of FT and MF relative to SFCT were estimated for each detected taxon (Toxocara canis, Trichuris vulpis, strongylids, Mesocestoides spp., and Taenia spp.). Associations between adult parasite burden and copromicroscopic positivity were explored using non-parametric tests and logistic regression models. Agreement between FT and MF was assessed using concordance and Gwet’s γ(AC1). Both FT and MF detected the most prevalent helminth species at SFCT, but showed low sensitivity, ranging from 28.6% to 56.5%. Parasite intensity did not significantly influence copromicroscopic positivity for most taxa, and quantitative MF results did not linearly reflect parasite loads. The two methods showed comparable performance, suggesting that their use may be guided by operational constraints and study objectives. Despite their limitations, copromicroscopic techniques represent useful tools for epidemiological surveillance in jackal populations, provided that adequate sample sizes are used and prevalence estimates are adjusted for test sensitivity and specificity.